"Even so, I have to see for myself whether the things are still here and intact." Isaac continued to play the mysterious figure Fenn had imagined him to be, whatever that might have been.
Fenn looked as though his suspicions had been confirmed. "Why bother? ...Fine. They're right next door anyway, and they're nothing special."
Isaac motioned for Fenn to step back, then slowly withdrew the revolver and got out of bed. Fenn rubbed the spot on his side where the muzzle had pressed against him, then turned and left the room.
Isaac followed him into the corridor. Fenn took out a lighter, and with a ding as the lid opened and a snick as it sparked, its light dispelled the darkness.
At the door to room 4, Fenn pulled several keys from his pocket, checked the labels attached to them, and selected one to unlock the door.
They went inside. The layout was much like Isaac's room, and the furnishings were nearly identical. But there was nothing conspicuous in the room. The bed was neat and the desktop bare, as though no one had stayed there.
Fenn went straight to the desk and pulled open a drawer. Isaac stepped closer and saw several jewelry boxes inside, varying in size and material. Some were encrusted with gemstones, while others were plain velvet boxes. Fenn opened one to reveal a pearl necklace.
"None of it's been touched, right?" Isaac asked.
"Of course. That person never intended to make me an actual robber. I wouldn't dare pocket any of it." Fenn closed the box and pulled open the adjacent drawer, which also contained several jewelry boxes.
Isaac's gaze swept over the jewelry. Fenn went to the wardrobe and opened it, revealing several folded garments. He pushed them aside and took out the cases hidden beneath them. He opened them one by one, revealing jewelry, pocket watches, several gold coins, and some small objects that looked like antiques.
"Is that everything?" Isaac looked around but didn't find what he wanted to see: his collection of books.
"Of course not." Fenn closed the cases and put them back. "There are two more rooms."
He walked out as he spoke, and the two of them went to room 7. Fenn unlocked the door there too. With practiced ease, he pulled open drawers, opened the wardrobe, and crouched down to drag several small cases out from under the bed. Like a skilled warehouse keeper, he brought out boxes from every corner and showed them to Isaac one by one.
By the time they had finished looking through all three rooms, boxes of every size covered the floor. The objects were varied and valuable, but Isaac's faint hopes gradually cooled, giving way to disappointment.
He had thought that since Fenn had taken part in the bank robbery and the stolen goods were still here, he might be able to recover his books. But the fact was, there wasn't a book in sight.
Seeing Isaac frown in silence, Fenn grew a little more certain of his own suspicions. He grinned, showing a row of rather crooked teeth. "Disappointed? Too bad, but there's nothing I can do. I really don't have the things."
Isaac tried to make his gaze look colder. Under his stare, Fenn shrugged. "Who knew something would go wrong halfway through? This whole trip was a waste of effort for me, and it's a real headache. But you already know I don't have the things anyway, so there's no need for conflict between us, is there?"
Fenn leaned against the wardrobe with his arms folded. Isaac slowly paced a couple of steps, then stopped by the window and sorted through his thoughts. Gradually, he began to piece things together.
First, he had to consider what Fenn and the others had originally planned. The person behind Fenn had a clear objective: "something" in a safe at Palmer Bank. Judging by Fenn's attitude, he didn't seem particularly concerned about the other stolen goods.
So... perhaps directly robbing that particular safe would have made their target too obvious and easily drawn unwanted attention. That was why they had decided to pull off a major heist and make a big commotion.
They had broken into multiple safes and taken everything inside, burying their true target among a pile of stolen goods and making it less conspicuous. Afterward, they would return the stolen items at staggered intervals, so that the important people would stop pressing for an investigation and ordinary victims would think, "If I wait a few more days, my things will come back."
Perhaps... if their target was his book collection, they might have guessed that he wouldn't dare openly seek official help to recover it or make too much of a fuss. In the end, they would use a high-profile heist to take the books without drawing attention.
And the "something" Fenn had said went wrong probably meant they hadn't gotten what they originally wanted.
At that thought, Isaac paused. His gaze swept over the jewelry boxes covering the floor before settling back on Fenn's face.
But the question was, why did Fenn think he "should" know that Fenn and the others no longer had those things? Or rather, who did Fenn think he was?
Judging by Fenn's attempt to scare him off with rumors of a haunting, he didn't believe Isaac was an official, and certainly couldn't believe he belonged to the church. Yet Fenn also believed some force stood behind Isaac, and that this force was wary of the "important person" behind Fenn.
Tch. Just whose man does Fenn think I am? He couldn't tell yet. So, approaching it from another angle, what made Fenn believe he really did possess a great deal of information and was tracking down the things, even though Fenn didn't think he was an official?
Fenn presumably knew little about him, or he was unlikely to have made such a mistake. In that case, the information that had misled Fenn had most likely come from what Isaac had revealed after entering Amorton Manor.
Something flashed through Isaac's mind, and he steadied himself. Although he wasn't one hundred percent certain about it, he decided to try bluffing.
"Since you know why I came looking for you, we might as well be more direct," he said. "Carlo Schuster. How much do you know about him?"
Fenn, however, replied without any surprise at the name Isaac had brought up so abruptly. "To be honest, the leads I can provide on that guy are very limited."
Sure enough! Isaac felt the excitement of having guessed a question correctly. The most direct reason Fenn thought he was no ordinary person was that he had said that name at the front desk.
From Fenn's perspective, Isaac apparently was someone investigating Carlo who had already traced him here. But Fenn wasn't quite sure of Isaac's background, so he had gone upstairs to sound him out and might have judged from some reaction of his that he wasn't an official.
Taking Fenn's various remarks into account, Isaac worked out the general situation and felt... speechless.
He took a deep breath. "So... how did that person take those books from you?"